The following Patent Document 1 discloses a multi-chamber evacuate heating furnace in which a heating chamber and a cooling chamber are disposed adjacent to each other with a partition interposed therebetween. This multi-chamber evacuate heating furnace is a multi-chamber type multi-cooling evacuate furnace that blows a cooling gas against an article to be heat-treated from a plurality of gas nozzles provided so as to surround the article to be heat-treated within the cooling chamber, thereby cooling the article to be heat-treated.
Meanwhile, the following Patent Document 2 discloses a multi-chamber type heat treatment apparatus that has three heating chambers and one cooling chamber disposed therein with an intermediate conveyance chamber interposed therebetween, and moves a treating target among the three heating chambers and one cooling chamber via the intermediate conveyance chamber, thereby performing desired heat treatment on the treating target. The cooling chamber in this multi-chamber type heat treatment apparatus is disposed below the intermediate conveyance chamber and cools the treating target, which is carried in from the intermediate conveyance chamber by an exclusive lifting device, using a liquid or mist-like cooling medium.